Seth Meyers, Anna Wintour and Oscar de la Renta at the 2014 Couture Council Award Luncheon Benefit for the Museum at FIT honoring Carolina Herrera at the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center on September 3, 2014 in New York City. Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for FIT Foundation.

Oscar de la Renta and model Karlie Kloss (left) walk the runway at the Oscar De La Renta fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Spring 2015 on September 9, 2014 in New York City. Photo: Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images.

SHAKY START: Scott Davis’ local knowledge of his home course may have given him an edge. Picture: Dean OslandFOR Waratah club professional Scott Davis, it made the cold early morning worthwhile.

Local knowledge came up trumps for the third straight year on Thursday when Davis carded a five-under 66 to win the $10,000 Waratah Pro-Am by a shot from Wollongong’s Brad McIntosh.

Davis’ second pro-am victory followed wins from touring professionals Leigh McKechnie (2012) and Nathan Green (2013), who have both been based at the Argenton course.

These days, Davis is generally limited to pro-shop duties and Saturday afternoon social games. Winning the tournament he helped organise was sweeter than his 2012 victory at the Toronto Pro-Am.

‘‘Especially when you’re here at 4.30 in the morning to start getting carts out and you’re still here at 6.30 at night, it’s very rewarding,’’ Davis said. ‘‘It seems to be a local golfer’s course.’’

Davis was high on confidence leading into his afternoon tee time after finishing tied fifth and only a shot behind the four winners, David Van Raalte, Andrew Campbell, Jason King and Brendan Smith, at the Merewether Pro-Am on Tuesday.

‘‘I’ve been hitting it pretty good and on my home course, the putts rolled in,’’ he said.

‘‘It was a shaky start and then I basically had six birdies in a row from eight to 13. There were a few high fives and knuckles, so my hands were getting sore.’’

Compared with last year’s Waratah Pro-Am, the field was weaker due to the likes of Green, James Nitties and Jake Higginbottom playing in the $2million Perth International.

McIntosh’s runner-up placing closed the gap on the NSW/ACT Order of Merit leader, The Vintage’s Edward Stedman.

However, it was not enough to threaten Stedman in the season’s final pro-am on Wednesday at Kooindah Waters.

Stedman finished 18th at two-over 73 on Thursday at Waratah and his $3106 lead cannot be overtaken.

Stedman hopes the form he has generated in his second NSW/ACT Order of Merit victory will carry through to success in the Japan Golf Tour qualifying school.

After progressing through the first two stages, Stedman will return to Japan next Tuesday for the third stage.

AAP reports: Journeyman John Wade is the shock leader of the Perth International after the Victorian upstaged a host of big names to shoot a tournament-record eight-under 64 on Thursday.

Wade, who qualified for the $1.9million event on Monday, said he surprised even himself with his hot opening round, which included six birdies and an eagle.

The 46-year-old said he was contemplating quitting the sport, but he may have to rethink it if he manages to win the Perth International and the European Tour exemption that goes with it. AAP

The Sladden family are auctioning their house at 18 Coonil Crescent, Malven, this weekend. Photo: Wayne Taylor/Fairfax Media The Sladden family are auctioning their house at 18 Coonil Crescent, Malven, this weekend. Photo: Wayne Taylor/Fairfax Media

The Sladden family are auctioning their house at 18 Coonil Crescent, Malven, this weekend. Photo: Wayne Taylor/Fairfax Media

The Sladden family are auctioning their house at 18 Coonil Crescent, Malven, this weekend. Photo: Wayne Taylor/Fairfax Media

The Sladden family are auctioning their house at 18 Coonil Crescent, Malven, this weekend. Photo: Wayne Taylor/Fairfax Media

The Sladden family are auctioning their house at 18 Coonil Crescent, Malven, this weekend. Photo: Wayne Taylor/Fairfax Media

The Sladden family are auctioning their house at 18 Coonil Crescent, Malven, this weekend. Photo: Wayne Taylor/Fairfax Media

The Sladden family are auctioning their house at 18 Coonil Crescent, Malven, this weekend. Photo: Wayne Taylor/Fairfax Media

Melbourne is bracing for its largest ever super Saturday, with more than 1500 homes scheduled for auction, smashing the previous record of 1365 auctions set on the same weekend last year.

“It will be a very big test for the auction market,” Domain Group’s senior economist Andrew Wilson said.

With 156 auctions booked for Saturday, hockingstuart is also having its biggest weekend of the year.

“At this stage it looks like it’s busier than any weekend we’ve got coming up in November as well,” hockingstuart director Rob Elsom said. “People are seeing that the clearance rates are high, they’re seeing that the good, A-grade properties are selling really well, and that’s motivating people to [sell].”

Marshall White’s director, John Bongiorno, said people who sell their home this weekend would further fuel the market as they look for new homes to buy.

Julie Sladden, 54, and her family are auctioning their four-bedroom house at Coonil Crescent, Malvern, on Saturday to avoid what they believed could be a busier November.

She said they planned to buy another house in the area or closer to the city during their long settlement period, so there was no urgency to sell. “I’m not really stressed at all because if it’s not a good result, we’re under no obligation to sell,” said Mrs Sladden, who has listed her home with hopes of more than $3.2 million.

While it may appear buyers are spoilt for choice, Dr Wilson said it depended on where they were looking.

“In the inner east or the outer east there’s still going to be plenty of people putting their hand up at auction, the inner north-east has been pretty good too,” he said. “But elsewhere it’s patchy and may be starting to work into a buyer’s market.”

Anna Chapman, 27, and her husband are hunting for a house in the inner-city this weekend. She is stunned by the sheer volume of properties for auction, but believes it will still be tough to secure her ideal home.

“You notice the same people going around to the same places,” she said. “And when you look at your selection criteria for what you’re after, whether it’ll be a bit of outdoor space or two bedrooms, you feel like there’s going to be a bunch of people that have the same [criteria].”

Despite the flurry of activity, Domain Group’s House Price Report shows Melbourne’s market is cooling. Melbourne’s median house price climbed just 1 per cent to $615,068 over the quarter, while the median unit price slid 0.2 per cent to $423,169, according to the report.

But Wakelin Property Advisory director Paul Nugent believes the momentum in the market remains strong. “It’ll be a real optimist who said that the values were going to increase between now and the end of the year,” he said. “But I think what we’re going to see … is a very healthy level of supply relative to demand and values holding firm.”

Peter and Christine Calabria, owners of Artisans Gallery on the Hill, Mondrook, NSWWANT to make a glass platter? How about a small rolling pin, perfect for dumplings? Or a wooden stool, starting from scratch? Maybe a simple kite or candle?

All of those things are possible at Peter and Christine Calabria’s unique gallery-workshop-homestay, Artisans on the Hill, in Tinonee (Mondrook) in the foothills of the Barrington Tops just west of Taree.

The talented couple opened their business nearly seven years ago as they sought to move out of Sydney and create a small business they could enjoy.

The three accommodation units are comfortable and the open-plan dining and kitchen area is spacious. The separate workshop in the back of the premises is modern and equipped with a large variety of tools and materials necessary for the wide array of classes. And the gallery adjacent to the main building is small but full of a wide range of artworks, from craft to wood to paintings, textiles and cards.

The workshops are meant to handle a maximum of eight people, allowing everybody to get personalised instruction.

“Everybody is hands-on while they are here,” Peter says.

Even the novice is treated with respect.

“We want to bring a person in – the first class might be three-and-a-half hours – learn, make it, and walk away with a piece they made. We can do candle-making in an hour and a half. If it’s woodwork, you can make a bowl by the end of the day,” Christine says.

Those looking for a more in-depth learning experience can stay overnight and take a class over a couple of days. Glasswork, for instance, takes longer, with kilns needing about 18 hours to fire properly.

The Calabrias could not be happier with their decision to move to the country.

Renewables rule: new power investments globally now favour non fossil-fuels.

Solar eclipse? What’s the future for the RET? Photo: Glenn Hunt

Solar eclipse? What’s the future for the RET? Photo: Glenn Hunt

Confused by the jargon about gigawatts and a “real 20 per cent”? Here are some basics about the hotly contested Renewable Energy Target.

Why a target?

Australia has some of the best solar and wind resources in the world. These renewables, as the name implies, are sources of energy that are typically not depleted no matter how much you use.

Sounds good, but they typically cost more than fossil fuel-sources such as coal and gas, and are intermittent. As Prime Minister Tony Abbott has noted, the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow. Batteries may eventually solve the intermittency issue but not for years, perhaps a decade or more.

Burning fossil fuels, though, has unwanted side effects, not least the release of carbon dioxide that contributes to cooking the planet. The speed and impact of climate change is hard to calculate but the US government reckons it amounts to a $US30 ($34) social cost per tonne of C02. Add back that damage – remember the carbon tax? – and the gap in costs between renewables and coal or gas narrows and even disappears.

Given the “market failure” to correctly price fossil fuels, policy corrections are needed, and adopting renewables is one. In Australia’s scheme, retailers are forced to buy a rising proportion of their power from sources such as hydro, wind and increasingly solar, with the cost passed on to consumers.

(The consumer price varies per state but is small compared with network charges that attract scant political attention.)

What is the target?

A major source of confusion. The Abbott government backs a “real” 20 per cent.

In fact, the legislated goal has never been “20 per cent”.

From its inception in 2001, the industry has been working to absolute targets of electricity supply for the simple reason that nobody can predict precisely the supply needed in any single day, let alone a year’s worth in 20 years.

In 2009 and 2010, the Renewable Energy Target (RET) was raised, and then tweaked, with bipartisan support. Marketers then picked up on the RET’s increased targets and coined the figure of a 20 per cent reduction by 2020.

In reality, Australia’s RET goal is for large-scale generators to deliver 41,000,000,000,000 watt-hours per year. That equals 41,000 gigawatt-hours, or 41 terawatt-hours if you’re particularly geeky. That’s enough to power about 6.2 million households.

The part of the scheme affecting households has no limit – and about 2 million homes have solar panels or solar hot-water systems, grabbing a subsidy worth about 40 per cent of the price of a unit.

Supply-side angst

With gripes, the big electricity firms, namely AGL, Origin and EnergyAustralia, supported that RET – at least publicly – when power demand each year was growing as it had done for decades. But demand began to fall, in part because electricity prices jumped 70 per cent in the five years to 2013 (thanks largely to investments in poles and wires) and consumers became thriftier.

And so, instead of a 20 per cent share, the 2020 figure is set to be more like 27 per cent. Plus, the scheme has cost about $5.2 billion to date, the government’s Warburton review found, in terms of a transfer of wealth from fossil-fuel generators to renewables suppliers.

Inconveniently for the review, though, its own commissioned modelling found consumers would be barely affected in the run-up to 2020 and would actually pay lower electricity prices after that date because of the way wholesale markets work. In short, wind and solar energy is basically free, so wholesale prices are suppressed.

Reviews

The Warburton review – headed by businessman and climate sceptic Dick Warburton – recommended options including shutting the scheme to new entrants or setting annual targets tied to demand for large generators. It also favoured reducing or axing the small-scale support scheme entirely.

(The independent Climate Change Authority in 2012 recommended leaving the RET largely intact. It is legislated to conduct another review by year’s end and, since the Abbott government has failed to win Senate support for its scrapping, the authority confirmed this week it will examine the target yet again.)

So just cut the target?

Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane this week said the government wants to do just that, slashing the 2020 target to 27,000 gigawatt-hours a year, equating to what it guesses would be a “true” 20 per cent.

Big power users, such as the aluminium industry would also be exempt.

Any change, though, needs backing in the Senate to change the legislation. So far, Labor, the Greens and Palmer United say they will block what amounts to a broken promise by the Coalition made prior to the 2013 election to leave the RET alone.

Renewable energy developers such as Infigen Energy and CWP say that changing the rules of the game midway undermines the value of existing investments made in good faith and would raise Australia’s “sovereign risk” in global markets.

States such as NSW stand to lose billions of dollars in new investment that is required if the RET is to be met. (Current generation is about 14,500 GW-hours, or a bit more than a third of the level needed.)

The Clean Energy Council estimates there are 34 wind farms alone that have been approved around the country including 10 in NSW and 13 in Victoria that are unlikely to be built if the target is cut.

All up, there’s potentially $15 billion more investment and thousands of jobs between now and 2020 if the RET is left as it is (and companies can move fast enough within the shrinking time left).

Sun worshippers

Mr Abbott will hope that Labor bows to calls to return certainty to the industry – albeit at a much reduced scale – and buckles.

The Coalition, though, knows Australians worship the sun and few would turn down the chance to reduce their reliance on the big energy companies if they could. Soaring gas prices this year and for years to come will only stoke consumer distrust of utilities.

That may be why the government has so far opted to leave the small end of the renewable industry alone.

Solar firms remain wary that its constant use of “household” in describing the sector, suggests the government does not want businesses to join residents in the rush to put solar on their rooftops.

How will it end?

In the short term, it’s hard to say.

Without the return of bipartisan support for renewables, though, investment in new large-scale plants will remain all but frozen, even as 50,000 more homes install solar panels each quarter.

Solar panel prices are about a quarter of the level of three years ago and drop by an estimated 30 per cent for every doubling in production. Advances in wind and other sources, such as tidal or geothermal, will drive down their costs too.

As the accompanying chart shows, when new electricity capacity is added worldwide it is more likely to be from a renewable source than coal, gas, oil or nuclear.

And banks and investors won’t finance new coal-fired power plants in Australia without factoring in some future price on carbon emissions, undermining whatever diminishing cost advantage coal has over renewables.

Add batteries to the mix – and many expect prices to fall as fast as solar panels if manufacturing scale ramps up – and the day comes closer when Australians can ignore Canberra, renewable energy target or no.

PORTRAYAL: Left, Paul Bernasconi, and right, file photo of William Dobell. Main Bernasconi picture: Jeff WestonIT’S the usual set of coincidences that happens when you’re an expat. I’ve been interested in Dobell’s life since I was a a kid growing up in Belmont. We went on a school excursion to his house in the mid ’70s and I remember being amazed that a world-famous artist lived right across the lake from me.

I borrowed the 1964 James Gleeson monograph from the library when I was in high school at St Pius and have read everything about him since. I worked in advertising in Sydney in the ’80s with Siimon Reynolds and moved to New York in 1990 to set up his American offices.

In 1993 I opened my own agency in New York City, Oasis, and sold it 10 years later to Dentsu, the Japanese communications giant.

A few years ago I promised myself that the first thing I would do when I stopped working would be to write a movie about Dobell. Last year, I began work on the screenplay and finished it this summer.

I formed a production company, Exhibit D Films (named after the court records of Dobell’s controversial portrait of Joshua Smith) and we are gathering a core group of investors and producers to help get it made.

I have connections at the Sydney Theatre Company so the first step will be workshopping the script with actual actors – we hope to begin this December.

Through a friend at the ABC I heard about Scott Bevan’s book and we’ve had a few email chats. I’m just so happy that Dobell’s torch is being carried by another Newcastle lad.

The working title for the film is A Reasonable Likeness and will trace Dobell’s life from his early days in Sydney and London – through the trial – to his breakdown, recovery on Lake Macquarie and his acceptance into the pantheon of Australian artists.

As for my dream cast; Russell Crowe as Dobell, Rachel Griffiths as his sister Alice, Magda Szubanski as Margaret Olley and Geoffrey Rush as Garfield Barwick KC. If you know any of them, let me know.

There have been books, documentaries and plays about this great man. It’s time for his close-up.

Although this will be my first feature project, I was an associate producer on Nicholas Wrathall’s documentary, Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia which came out last year. My next project will be a very fictionalised account of the people and events that led to the 1979 Star Hotel Riot in Newcastle.

The working title is Last Night at the Star – but it’s early days yet.

Weekender asked Bernasconi some questions about his Dobell project. His answers follow.

Have you got a budget in mind?

We’re still finalising budgets and locations. The film covers more than 50 years and takes place in four locations – Newcastle, Sydney, London and Wangi Wangi – so there are some efficiencies to be worked out.

Melbourne may have to stand in for Sydney in the ’40s because of the trams and such. The story begins in Newcastle in 1920 and ends there in 1970 – Dobell’s last major exhibition was at the Newcastle Civic Art Gallery, which back then was inside the War Memorial Building on Laman Street.

Will you consider a play, or film only?

There was a stage production about the trial, Art War ’44 developed and performed by University of Melbourne students in 1999, and there have been several biographies of Dobell beginning with James Gleeson’s 1964 monograph.

I always thought Dobell’s story would make a great film – it’s a classic hero’s journey: talented outsider with humble origins, achieves early acclaim, is persecuted for his art, suffers a major breakdown, recovery, redemption and finally, respect.

Interestingly, Dobell’s story parallels that of two of his contemporaries – America’s “Father of the Atomic Bomb” Robert Oppenheimer and Britain’s wartime “codebreaker” Alan Turing. Both were geniuses working in the service of something greater.

Oppenheimer was accused of being a communist spy and ostracised from the scientific community before finally being exonerated. His story was the basis for the 1989 film Fat Man and Little Boy starring Paul Newman.

Turing was convicted of homosexuality and, tragically, committed suicide. A movie about his life, The Imitation Game (starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley), is due out in December.

Do you have your own version of the ‘‘truth’’ of Dobell’s life? Would you fictionalise any aspects? Would you mention or deal with his sexuality?

The script is about 70per cent factual. Licence has been taken with certain characters, dates and events. Dobell’s sexuality is definitely dealt with in the film, it would have been disingenuous not to.

He was understandably circumspect about his sexuality, considering the times, but it is generally accepted that he was gay. It’s been suggested that one of the reasons his nervous breakdown after the trial was so severe was because of the nature of Garfield Barwick’s aggressive and suggestive questioning during his cross examination.

Dobell does have a London love interest in the movie, based partly on written and painted evidence, partly on pure speculation. It’s nobody well known, but one might be able to work it out from two of Dobell’s paintings from that time. That’s all I’m saying.

The Archibald Trial is, of course, a pivotal piece of the story. Australia in the 1940s was a nation struggling with its own identity – was it still part of the British Empire or did its future depend on developing a cultural identity of its own?

The trial was as much about the forces of Australian conservatism battling the progressives. Even though it happened 70 years ago it’s a conflict that still resonates today.

Do you own Dobell artworks or memorabilia?

I have a signed first edition of the Gleeson book, which I treasure, but no paintings as yet. Maybe if the film makes a buck I’ll shout myself a sketch.

Why do you think Dobell is a great artist?

I’m no expert, but I think the reason Dobell’s works are so loved is because he was able to find something new and fascinating in so many of his subjects, yet at the same time something familiar and reassuring.

You can look at a painting as startling and ethereal as his 1969 The Tired Lady and still find warmth and humour – she could be my grandma.

TweetFacebookWHEN Dianna Thomas and husband Paul Disspain moved into their beach home, the homeowners immediately adored the modesty of the structure.

But, as architects, the pair also saw an opportunity for revitalisation and expansion, so they did both.

They moved to their MacMasters Beach home in 2002 with their little girl, Gabriella, to enter the world soon after – a seachange for the small family from the bright lights of Sydney.

“When we purchased the house as a weekend getaway from our busy Sydney-based lives, we loved the modesty, but as architects we couldn’t help but explore options for addressing its limitations,” Thomas says.

The couple embarked on a renovation of their beachside home, with the completed project described as “an exercise in modesty, continuity and fun”, by Ramsey Awad, a juror on the Newcastle Architectural Awards.

The home was awarded the Best Alterations and Additions Project in the awards.

MacMasters Beach house. Dianna Thomas Architect. Brigid Arnott photo.

Part treehouse and part beachhouse, there is a quiet finesse that runs through the entire structure, typical of the couple’s lauded style of architecture.

“MacMasters Beach is a forest with houses in it and preserving this balance is important to us.”

Originally erected in 1959, the three-bedroom, one-bathroom home is located on a 220-square-metre sloping block, with the original garage-turned-studio tucked beneath the living area.

The existing structure remained relatively intact, excluding a bathroom renovation, added insulation and a 1950s “strip driveway” being rerouted.

However, the combined kitchen and dining area was an addition that bridged the courtyard and tree canopy on the north-east end of the block.

“It took us some time to define what the key elements were that gave the existing house the character we loved and then pinpoint how we could enlarge the house without losing those qualities,” Thomas says.

The couple also decided to replicate many of the original fit-out features of the architectural era to retain the home’s personality, including colour schemes.

A bold tangerine feature wall sits proudly on the exterior of the entrance, “inspired by the orange in Le Corbusier’s 1959 Salubra collection in the Polychromie Architecturale . . . and a tribute to our local king parrots’ breast feathers!” Thomas says.

But she says “form follows function” when it comes to many elements of her award-winning home, including the roof.

MacMasters Beach house. Dianna Thomas Architect. Brigid Arnott photo.

“We did not want to mess with the old tiled roof, we wanted to respect its original form and integrity so the . . . low flat roof transition zone is expressed internally and externally,” she says.

“The roofs of the main addition and the front deck addition are skillions because that’s an effective way to optimise natural light and achieve passive solar design and provide generous eaves for shade and shelter – we get a lot of heavy rain here.”

The couple have also made conscious decisions to maximise on sustainability throughout the structure and outdoor area, from a responsive lightweight construction and thermal insulation to fenestration attuned to local climate providing ample cross-ventilation.

MacMasters Beach house. Dianna Thomas Architect. Brigid Arnott photo.

Rainwater is harvested in a 5000 litre tank, and the couple also grow their own vegies and use solar panels to heat their water.

“Much of the social and economic value of MacMasters Beach derives from its low-density bush-beach suburban character and a friendly supportive community,” Thomas says.

From dainty crockery to metres of dress-making fabric, Penny Unsworth has never had so many mismatched objects clutter up her house.

Ms Unsworth, a member of the Country Women’s Association’s Bayside branch, has been preparing for the group’s first garage sale for charity – and the goods just keep coming.

“When I go out, I don’t know what I’m going to find on my doorstep,” she said, laughing.

“We’re really excited about it.”

The association’s Hampton garage sale is one of 8000 scheduled across the country – including more than 1600 in Victoria – for Saturday as part of Australia’s largest not-for-profit jumble sale.

Now in its fourth year, hundreds of thousands of bargain-hunters are tipped to trawl through backyard sales held simultaneously for the annual Garage Sale Trail.

Schools, households and community groups are selling more than 1.5 million items – including a pregnant alpaca and hovercraft in Tasmania – in the name of reusing and recycling goods.

The event’s co-founder Andrew Valder said the sale promoted awareness of waste management.

“Sustainable living starts at home,” he said.

“One garage sale on its own doesn’t make much of a difference, but imagine if every garage in country was involved – that’s a whole lot of difference.”

But it is not all about second-hand goods – many sellers are spruiking plants and handmade crafts, as well as sausage sizzles and music.

Mr Valder said Garage Sale Trail, which began in 2010 in Bondi, was more than just a treasure hunt.

“It’s not just that you go and buy some nondescript second-hand item – you often find out the story of the stuff you’re buying and that sort of makes it much more powerful than it otherwise would,” he said.

Savvy shoppers can find out what is happening in their neighbourhood – and what bargains will be up for grabs – through the event’s website.

He said he initially got into the game to feed his missus, who had battled heroin addiction for years.

He then took on a few regulars.

From there, he took on more and more clients to the point where he had a full-time job driving around the city dropping off deals and picking up $50 to $100 a sale.

He looked harmless sitting in the Newcastle District Court dock.

Grey thinning hair, spectacles and the green prison-issue trackie.

He wasn’t the type to drape himself in gold or ride jet skis on the weekend.

The home in Codrington Street looked like a standard three-bedroom brick job, while no one would have held it against him if he’d upgraded his 10-year-old Falcon.

As well as the $330,000 in the drawer, McLucas had $5500 in his pantry, $3000 in a box, $2000 in coins and $8000 cash in another bedroom.

He got three years’ jail for supply and possessing the proceeds of crime with a minimum of 21 months to serve.

He got parole last year, stayed clean for a matter of minutes then was found at Merewether in July last year with a few grams of heroin.

He spent a bit more time inside before he got bail and a suspended sentence.

John Ward Pearman was of a similar ilk.

He looked harmless enough, but his dedication to the drug trade was as persistent as it was sad.

In 2006 he got caught with some gear at Blacksmiths, got bail, then was caught with some guns, gear and cash a week later.

Two years after that he was done at Lambton with some amphetamines, ecstasy and $14,000 cash.

Two years after that he was found living in a shed at Blacksmiths with cash, drugs and stolen property inside it while he was still on parole.

Once again he got out, and once again the coppers were waiting for him.

One count of supply for eight grams of ice. One count of possessing a weapon – a taser.

This time the judge gave him a chance and granted him a special type of bail where Johnny got to go to rehab before serving a suspended jail sentence.

“At the time I told him that if I was forced to send him to jail he would only have himself to blame,” the judge said. “I now am going to send him to jail and it is entirely true that Mr Pearman only has himself to blame.”

The problem for John, now in his mid 40s, was that the judge made it a condition of his suspended sentence that he had to undergo drug testing.

He lasted 12 days.

“Mr Pearman has thumbed his nose at the law,” the judge said when re-sentencing him to seven years with five to serve. Mr Pearman presents as a man who was somewhat defeated by the circumstances in which he now finds himself. It is a terribly sad thing to see someone of his age going back to jail for what must be a significant period of time.

“He has but one life to live, and it is distressing to see him waste that life in the way he has been.

“But ultimately it remains the case that Mr Pearman’s decision to use drugs, Mr Pearman’s decision to supply drugs and Mr Pearman’s decision to arm himself with a Taser, obviously prepared to use it as part of his drug dealing activities, are matters of personal choice.

“I am not saying the choices are as easy for him as it is for those who are not addicted to drugs. It is a difficult choice. But Mr Pearman was given the opportunity to put his drug dealing days behind him.

“He failed to take it and he must be punished for the personal choice he made to commit these offences.”

Rural Vonnas: Local vineyards supply some of the 130,000 bottles of wine in Restaurant George Blanc’s cellar. Rural Vonnas: Local vineyards supply some of the 130,000 bottles of wine in Restaurant George Blanc’s cellar.

Rural Vonnas: Local vineyards supply some of the 130,000 bottles of wine in Restaurant George Blanc’s cellar.

Rural Vonnas: Local vineyards supply some of the 130,000 bottles of wine in Restaurant George Blanc’s cellar.

Culinary theme park: hotel, boutiques and spa now make up the Georges Blanc complex in the small rural town of Vonnas.

Fine dining: The dining room at Georges Blanc Restaurant is stately but the atmosphere relaxed.

At the helm: Goerges Blanc took over the restaurant, which had been in his family since 1872.

Rural Vonnas: Local vineyards supply some of the 130,000 bottles of wine in Restaurant George Blanc’s cellar.

I have to be honest; I’d rather have pie in a pub, or duck curry in a neighbourhood Thai, than nibble my way through a fine-dining menu. I don’t expect to enjoy myself in a famous gastronomic restaurant. I anticipate headache-inducing choices, svelte society women picking at salad, and culinary snobs discussing the differences between morille and girolle mushrooms.

So it is with trepidation that I drive to Vonnas for a dinner date with Georges Blanc. He’s the emperor of epicures and king of the kitchen. Three generations of Blanc family women ran a restaurant in Vonnas from 1872, and all were lauded. Then Georges took over and, in 1981, the restaurant was awarded three Michelin stars. In an incredible culinary feat, it has kept them ever since. That same year, Blanc also won chef of the year from Gault et Millau; in 1985 it scored his food 19.5 out of 20, the highest mark then ever awarded. The chef is now a Commander of the Legion of Honour, France’s highest decoration.

You might expect the restaurants of such a man to be lodged in five-star Paris hotels, but all his establishments are regional. His flagship Restaurant Georges Blanc sits deep in the countryside between Lyon and Dijon in his hometown. Vonnas has a population of just over 2000 and I’m glad I have the help of a GPS in finding it. Still, it is far from a dung-splattered village. Blanc owns most of the buildings around the square and has turned Vonnas into a culinary theme park: luxe hotel, spa, boutiques selling branded homeware and a deli tempting with Georges Blanc sausages and sauces.

I check into the hotel and don my jacket for dinner, nerves a-jangle. It is always deeply unsettling to find waiters better-dressed than diners. Should I wear a tie? I decide to go without and am relieved to find the dress code informal. The dining room is stately – tapestries hang on the walls, and chairs are spindle-legged – but the atmosphere is relaxed.

The menu makes my head swim. What is an embrouillade or an aiguillette? I order the seven-course degustation menu Images de Vonnas, come what may, and turn my attention to the wine list. The cellar holds 130,000 bottles of wine from some 3000 appellations, none of which give an Australian any clue to grape variety.

But the sommelier Delphin is a delight. He speaks English and has no pretensions. Would I like a Puligny-Montrachet ‘Corvee des Vignes’ Jean-Marc Vincent 2008? Of course I would. It’s a chardonnay from nearby Beaune, apparently, and gets me through my oysters with caviar, smoked soup with scallops, and lobster with mushroom ravioli (morille mushrooms, for those who need to know).

Later, Delphin pours a Chambolle-Musigny ‘Les Charmes’ Amiot Servelle 1998. It’s a pinot noir, also from Burgundy, but I don’t know why I write it down. The chances of finding the same bottle in another restaurant are slim, such is the number of appellations in France.

I prepare for the main course. With Bresse, and its highly prized poultry just down the road, Georges Blanc is obsessed with chicken. A giant bronze chicken glares outside the restaurant, a giant porcelain chicken broods inside. There are chickens embossed on the menu cover and salt cellar. Blue-legged, milk and grain-fed Bresse chickens are considered the best in France (which to the French means the world) and have their own protected appellation.

Surely hype can only carry you so far. I’m expecting a chicken epiphany, but all I get is – well, chicken. Tasty chicken, yes; well-cooked chicken, certainly, if rather overwhelmed by a strong foie gras and mushroom sauce. Hard to say if it is Michelin three-star chicken. Some say Georges Blanc ought to have been downgraded, but he’s such a giant of French cuisine that Michelin reviewers just can’t bring themselves to do the deed.

Case in point, half the guests have only just finished a gargantuan meal and are now nibbling their way through a fantastic cheese selection, wheeled about on a trolley. “A dessert without cheese is like a beautiful woman with only one eye,” gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin once remarked. A wheel of creamy Reblochon has just been broken open when Georges Blanc appears, resplendent in white and a tall chef’s hat. He glides through the room like a pope offering benedictions, and shakes hands and signs menus. I feel curiously thrilled.

I finish with a savarin, a rum-soaked circular cake perhaps named for Brillat-Savarin. “Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are,” he famously said. So I’ll tell you what I am: full and dreamy-minded and content. This isn’t just eating but pure theatre and an iconic French experience, and I feel like applauding. TRIP NOTESMORE INFORMATION

rhonealpes-tourisme上海龙凤论坛mGETTING THERE

Etihad flies to Abu Dhabi with onward connections to Geneva. See etihad上海龙凤论坛mGETTING AROUND

Geneva airport is 140 kilometres from Vonnas via the A40. Australian self-drive specialist DriveAway Holidays has car hire in France from about $300 a week. Phone 1300 723 972, see driveaway上海龙凤论坛m.auSTAYING THERE

Georges Blanc Parc & Spa is a member of five-star Relais & Chateaux brand. Set in landscaped gardens with village-like architecture, it has a spa, pool and luxe rooms from $282 a night. The restaurant has set menus from $210. Phone 1300 121 341 or see relaischateaux上海龙凤论坛m